And it's Friday

I really need to get down to work; I collected the student papers on Thursday (Well, I said, "You all are responsible people and I know you are busy so I would allow maybe an extension until Monday but really if you have it done, e-mail it to me by Friday" and I think I'm going to live to regret that as I don't have three papers, and therefore cannot mark the task as "done" until I get those three....)

I started Dr. Whooves' mane. It's done in pieces that are then connected (so it has points). I figured something out. I think it's clever but it's probably not that clever, but anyway:

How do you tell "piece 1" from "piece 2" and from "pieces 3 through 6"?

Well, on Chrysalis, when I made her, I took Post It notes, and stuck them on each bit, but some of the notes fell off. This time, I realized: I still have the "tail" from where I started the piece left on it, I won't be removing that until I weave that end in when it's done. So I tied knots in the yarn tails: one knot for Piece 1, two for Piece 2, and so on. Like I said, it struck me as clever but it's probably not so very clever.

In just over a week I get another short break, as usual I'm going to visit my parents. Part of this is that I need to do some clothes shopping and it's just EASIER there (Sherman is very spread out and the construction there is still bad, and the two stores I might be most likely to shop at are on opposite sides of the interstate and getting between them is STILL not easy). (One thing I need to do is find a store where they don't frown on trying on bras. I've realized that since doing the fitness dvd in addition to the cross-country ski exerciser, I've lost some girth around my ribcage and the current band size I have is a little too large, so I want to try dropping down a size and see how that works. They go, typically, in 2" intervals.... I will hasten to note that cup size has not changed; that part of me seems fairly resistant to weight loss. Not that that bothers me; I'd rather have an itty-bitty waist and bigger other appendages.... I'm thinking the Von Maur, which is more expensive but also nicer and has nicer people working there might be the best place to try. Heck, they may even have a "fitter" there, for all I know, and maybe she could help me)

I am, as you might guess, already thinking about projects. I plan to take the couple of in-progress things (the long-stalled cabled socks, the Rickenbacker shawl, which is getting more and more done on it) but I want a couple of "new" projects.

One is going to be Haruni (that's a Ravelry link but I think they recently opened their pattern section to even non members? Maybe?) It's a shawl based on a fern-leaf lace pattern. It's designed to be made with ~550 yards of sock yarn and I have some pretty, soft-grey-with-pastels I got a while back for a shawl, and I like it for Haruni.

I also am going to do at least one amigurumi; someone came out with a pattern for an amigurumi version of a recently-discovered flapjack octopus and it is cute in its own simple way. You can see a photo of the actual animal at Featured Creatures. And really, that's a pretty accurate amigurumi, as amigurumi go....

I also kind of love that the scientific name of the octopus is Opistoteuthis adorabilis, because there are way too many things in the natural world with the specific epithet of horribilus or spinosus or something like that. (And yes. The scientist who named it chose the epithet because of "adorable.")

(I will also confess to thinking that with a few minor modifications and a color change, that pattern could be used for a Smooze....at least, the G4 kind of Smooze)

And I want to start a pair of simple socks. One day last week, feeling sorry for myself over stuff (I think it was when a difficult committeemember called me up and talked at me for a while, and I was reminded again that either I don't brain some people well, or there are some people who just do weird things like expecting others to read their minds when they say something totally opposite to what they think) and I ordered some sparkly rainbow sockyarn.

No, really. The colorway is called (if I remember the order of the words right) Glitter Rainbow Unicorn Fight

Given my new fondness for Star vs. The Forces of Evil, I really want socks of that colorway. (GLITTER RAINBOW UNICORN FIGHT could be one of Star's "spells"). Just simple socks, to be worn under slacks in the winter with my Mary Jane type clogs....but I think I will feel perhaps slightly more powerful on the days when I wear them. I hope.